Autopsy reveals millionaire was shot from close range

Nanette Johnston talks to her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mick Hill, before opening statements in her trial in Santa Ana on Monday. Johnston is charged with the special-circumstances murder of healthcare entrepreneur William R. McLaughlin, 55, who was gunned down inside his Balboa Coves home in Newport Beach on Dec. 15, 1994. Eric Naposki, Johnston's former boyfriend was convicted in July of murdering McLaughlin at Johnston's behest and faces a life term in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on Jan. 20. POOL PHOTO: PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – The gunman who pumped six bullets into the chest of Newport Beach millionaire William McLaughlin in his Balboa Coves home in December 1994 was accurate and close, a pathologist testified Wednesday.

Dr. Tony Juguilon, the chief forensic pathologist for Orange County, told a jury that the autopsy revealed that at least two of six shots that slammed into McLaughlin as he lounged in a robe in the kitchen of his bay-front home were fired from less than two feet away. All six shots struck McLaughlin in the chest or abdomen and each was potentially fatal, Juguilon added.

The pathologist was called to the witness stand in the third day of the trial of Nanette Johnston, McLaughlin's much-younger, live-in girlfriend, who is charged with plotting his death for financial gain.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy and defense attorney Mick Hill agree that the gunman who shot with such deadly efficiency was Eric Naposki, a former NFL linebacker who was having a secretive affair with Johnston. Naposki, now 45, was convicted last year of special-circumstances murder for his role in the slaying and faces a life term in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing, scheduled Jan. 20.

Johnston, now 46, also known in court records as Nanette Packard, is on trial before a jury in Judge William Froeberg's court on similar charges.

Hill contends that Naposki acted on his own out of jealousy when he gained entrance into McLaughlin's home with a freshly-cut house key and shot the 55-year-old healthcare entrepreneur while Johnston was shopping on Dec. 15, 1994. Johnston, Hill told the jury, was not involved in the slaying.

But Murphy insists that Johnston put Naposki up to murder so that she could get away with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from McLaughlin's bank accounts and reap a financial windfall as the beneficiary of McLaughlin's life insurance policy and will. She also stood to have access to his beach house and title to a luxury car, Murphy said.

Murphy contends that Johnston provided the house key to Naposki for him to copy, and gave him her key to a pedestrian gate into the private community on Newport Bay, allowing Napsoki to get inside the home undetected.

The newly-cut house key was found stuck in the lock of McLaughlin's front door, and the pedestrian-access key was found on the ground near the entryway, apparently dropped by the gunman, according to evidence introduced earlier in the trial.

Naposki, who played for at least two NFL teams during his brief career, was with Packard, then 28, at her son's soccer game in Walnut an hour before the murder, and worked security at a Newport Beach nightclub less than 200 yards from the Balboa Coves home.

Nanette Johnston talks to her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mick Hill, before opening statements in her trial in Santa Ana on Monday. Johnston is charged with the special-circumstances murder of healthcare entrepreneur William R. McLaughlin, 55, who was gunned down inside his Balboa Coves home in Newport Beach on Dec. 15, 1994. Eric Naposki, Johnston's former boyfriend was convicted in July of murdering McLaughlin at Johnston's behest and faces a life term in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on Jan. 20. POOL PHOTO: PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy presents his opening statements in the case against Nanette Johnston in Santa Ana on Monday. Johnston is charged with the special-circumstances murder of healthcare entrepreneur William R. McLaughlin, 55, who was gunned down inside his Balboa Coves home in Newport Beach on Dec. 15, 1994. Eric Naposki, Johnston's former boyfriend was convicted in July of murdering McLaughlin at Johnston's behest and faces a life term in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on Jan. 20. POOL PHOTO: PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Deputy Public Defender Mick Hill gives his opening statements for Nanette Johnston in Santa Ana on Monday. Johnston is charged with the special-circumstances murder of healthcare entrepreneur William R. McLaughlin, 55, who was gunned down inside his Balboa Coves home in Newport Beach on Dec. 15, 1994. Eric Naposki, Johnston's former boyfriend was convicted in July of murdering McLaughlin at Johnston's behest and faces a life term in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on Jan. 20. POOL PHOTO: PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Eric Naposki booking photo 2009

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